Crippled by Imposter Syndrome (IS)? What if embracing it made you more honest, and more skilful? Maybe it’s time you sharpened your sense of the absurd and learned to love your IS.
Live with it.
Stories and stats confirm that imposter syndrome sticks. Unless you’re an actual con artist gifted with the ‘catch me if you can’ gene, you’re likely to feel like a life-long fraud.
Cue the courage to accept a thing you cannot change. Realise that you’ll probably be IS prone forever, then see it as a force for good. Because it is, if you’re keen to stay curious and humble(ish).
Stay on your toes
Disarm the IS demons by agreeing with them until you’ve checked the evidence. Could some of your behaviour or your big ideas be a bit or a lot crap?
Back yourself, but be nosey about what triggers your IS. Is there a performance gap that needs filling? Ask around, do your homework, plug it.
Using IS to stay on your toes works best if you’ve got your ‘get better’ mind on. Believe that ‘becoming’ is better than ‘being.’ Be OK with not being there, YET.
Say ‘bollocks’ to IS’s snarky ‘should know better’ or ‘should know by now’. But, when your gut tells you that your inner doomsayers may have a point, check it out.
Eyeball the fraud police
Who exactly is coming to get you? Give them form and faces.
Along with the divine Neil Gaiman, I’m waiting to be busted by a bunch of besuited, clipboard carriers. Mine also have handcuffs, and they’re not those cutesy padded, pink ones.
One of my cleverest clients imagines being outed by a phalanx of hellish twinset clad headmistresses with bulletproof perms.
Personify your imposter squad then amp up the comic relief. Imagine hitting them with a hefty dossier stuffed with evidence of how bloody great you are.
Expecting the fraud police? How will you know them?
#impostersyndrome #makegoodart #flexiblemindset #wrinklyrant #wrinklywriter #copywriter
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